King James Version

The
Book of 2 Samuel

Chapter
14

And Joab sent to Tekoah,
and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself
to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with
oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead:

And, behold, the
whole family is risen against thine handmaid, and they said, Deliver him that
smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he
slew; and we will destroy the heir also: and so they shall quench my coal which
is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the
earth.

Then said she, I pray thee, let
the king remember the LORD thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers
of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As the
LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.

And the woman
said, Wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God?
for the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king
doth not fetch home again his banished.

For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the
ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person:
yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Now therefore that I am come
to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have
made me afraid: and thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king; it may
be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.

And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in
all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the
king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord
the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these
words in the mouth of thine handmaid:

And Joab fell to the ground on his
face, and bowed himself, and thanked the king: and Joab said, To day thy
servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that
the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant.

And when he polled his head, (for it
was at every year's end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him,
therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels
after the king's weight.

And Absalom
answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send
thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? it had been good for
me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king's face; and if
there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.